Category Archives: Celia Thaxter

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This is Celia Thaxter’s parlor! In here, she would do a lot of her writing and painting. Can you find her writing desk? It seems almost hidden amongst all of the lavish decor. And what about the walls? Almost every inch is covered with photographs, paintings, and anything else Celia wanted to display–even works created by her elite New England friends! Can you imagine trying to focus and do work in a room with so much going on around you? I would definitely get distracted. However, it wasn’t just Celia who enjoyed a what we might call “cluttered” work space. In fact, Continue reading →

The Pelican Garden on Star Island is beautiful, has an impressive yield and now has its own blog! You can check it out here, An Island Garden.

You may recognize the name of Celia Thaxter’s book about her own Isles of Shoals Garden, published the year of her death in 1894. You can purchase the volume online on Shops on Star, in our bookstore, or read it on island in the Vaughn Library. It describes her garden on Appledore in detail, how she dealt with pests, and is a charming memoir.

Have you heard? Did you see the new button in our sidebar? No, not the one of the dreamboat that you can use to link to us from your blog, (but feel free to do so!), the Rutledge Marine Lab has a new blog! And they have been blogging about some cool historical stuff! Way to go, Drew Bush and Matt Terenna for spearheading this!

One of my all time favorite Isles of Shoals stories is the one about Celia Thaxter’s bear. Fred McGill tells it well. Click on the pages below to open them in a new window, then you can click on the image to enlarge it for easier reading.

At the Discover Center there is currently on display the murder ax, shown above, on loan from the collection with a note that says there is definitive proof that Louis was indeed the murderer. There is more information available at Anatomy of an Ax Murder and other books and resources at http://vaughncottage.omeka.net/freelouis so you can decide for yourself!